There are many sources that tell you the positive psychological and physical effects from meditation. Google the word "meditation" and you will find many of them. Articles I have written talk about some of these as well as others. Just look in the Meditation category and you will find them. These sources often don't tell some of the specific things you may experience as a result of meditation, so when they happen you don't know if you are imagining things or doing something wrong. To save you some trouble, and to let you know when you are experiencing results from your meditation, here is a list of some things I have experienced.

The top of your head may become numb or experience a tingling sensation.

Sometimes your skin feels silky smooth and sensitive. Any touch to it is pleasurable.

Your body may feel as if it is expanding and opening up, especially in the area of your head.

You may feel sensations in your groin area or spine. Sometimes it is as if energy is being pumped from the base of your spine and out of your head.

If you focus on a specific area of your body, you may feel a vibration or tingling in that area.

If you are seated in a sitting position, you may spontaneously begin sitting straighter, as if an outside force is pulling you up by your head.

Your breathing cycle may become deeper, longer, or stop without your feeling any deprivation

You may experience a lightening of the field of vision to the point of it becoming white, even with your eyes closed.

You may see what appears to be a falling snow.

You may be 'spacey' after a period of meditation. You can find it difficult to focus on daily life, or to do any disciplined thinking

You may experience an intense state of euphoria and contentment. "God is in his heaven and all is right with the world."

You may feel energized. If it is bedtime, you can have trouble getting to sleep and find that you awaken after each dream cycle.

The veil between sleeping and waking consciousness thins. Dreams are easier to remember, and easier to understand. Lucid dreaming becomes more frequent.

Your need for sleep may decrease.

Your appetite may decrease, or increase.

You may experience hot flashes (even if you are a young man).

You may hear strange sounds that don't happen physically. There may be a buzzing, droning, or thunder.

You may feel a vibration in your body, especially your head. If you've ever been shocked, it feels like that but without the pain. The vibration may feel like it is a low frequency or a high frequency.

As I said, the purpose of this list is to let you know some of the things you may experience. Not everyone experiences all of them, and some are more frequent with specific types of meditation. If you don't experience them, don't feel as if you are doing something wrong. The purpose of meditation isn't psychophysical experiences such as these. The purpose of meditation is to become more conscious. Most of these experiences are simply signposts on the way that may, or may not occur.

Richard, I started meditating 5 weeks ago, and I've recently begun to experience many of the sensations you've listed. There is something I've experienced which you did not list, however: the unexpected sensation of falling rapidly, which is absolutely startling (and fun and even blissful) when it happens. What's even more startling (and a lot less fun) is that sometimes I begin to feel it when I'm not meditating. Have you heard of this?

The sensation of falling tends to occur with total relaxation of the body and, to a great extent, the mind. You may have experienced something similar when falling asleep, though this is often accompanied by a jerk as the body reacts to the sensation. In that context the two together are called a hpynic twitch. Another physical source of the sensation is when you have an inner ear problem.

There is no accepted explanation for why normal people experience the falling sensation. It is at least partially physical, as I said above. It tends to occur more frequently when you're going to sleep if you're over-fatigued or not getting enough sleep. The only times I have experienced it are when I'm going to sleep and the few times I've successfully been able to get out of my body, never as I was going about my normal business.

If I were experiencing this as I went about my normal business, I would make it a practice to ground myself after meditation. Get a bite to eat, or do some gentle stretching.

If it is related to your meditation, and from the sounds of it it is, over time the sensation should decrease. Speaking metaphorically, most of the signs I listed tend to happen more in the early stages of meditation as the blockages in the mind, body, and emotions are cleared up. As you find a new equilibrium, they tend to tone down.

Thanks for your response, Richard. It wasn't that long ago that I'd read things about the "harmful" effects of mantra meditation, and I'd think to myself, "no way, that's impossible". Then I started having these unexpected sensations, in particular the falling sensation that at times can happen during normal daily activity, and three words dreadfully came to my mind: irreversible psychological damage. I still find it hard to believe that this technique, which I've come to enjoy so much, could lead to mental damage; however, now I find that I'm not allowing myself to have these sensations during meditation. This technique is not going to take me to where I want to go if I don't allow it to, is it. Anyway, thanks again for your reply: I feel a little less "crazy" now.

expandtion, contraction strec hed thin, being very fat or thick, being water, being light, feeling light, being infinitly huge or tiny or both. we expand into our infinite self which we are and we contract to experience form existence, when we leave this form we have the feeling of expanding which is our natural state we are infinite consciousness having a finite experience that seems so real we really believe that this life is all we are, we are not remembering that we are the cause of all that is. keep meditating your own way dont follow instruction there is no one way back into infinite selfhood, so find your own way be unique find your way home. love to all

hey, I have been feeling a tingling sounds in my head after meditation, and I wonder if its due to meditation or is it a medical condition. I am a musician and I do take care of my ears very well, and this is starting to make me worried

The mostly likely cause of the tingling sound you hear is your meditation, especially since you are a musician. Inner sounds have been described in yogic literature as far back as the Upanishads. The Nada-Bindu Upanishad in particular lists sounds you may hear during meditation. As the Upanishad says

34. At first, the sounds are like those proceeding from the ocean, clouds, kettle-drum and cataracts; in the middle (stage) those proceeding from Mardala (a musical instrument), bell and horn. 35. At the last stage, those proceeding from tinkling bells, flute, Vina (a musical instrument) and bees....

There is a branch of yoga called nada yoga, in which the focus is on sound. Bindu Magazine has an extensive article on Nada Yoga.

All in all, don't worry. The sound you hear is an indication of success in your meditation. I hope this helps.

i have been practicing meditation for quite sometime now. I have taken hallucigenic drugs, which stressed me out, and so i turned to meditation. I feel like im getting very far very quickly, but i also have a strong sense of fear that i might be damaging my psyche. im afraid to completely let go. i fear that this life is completely a possibility of what we are, and this stresses me with the thought of my family.

through your experiences, what have you come to think of you family, and their meaning to you in life? please answer as i am a strongly searching soul.

Hey!I am very new to meditation but i seem fascinated by it.I am however facing a problem which seems quite impossible,yet it's true.I cannot keep my eyes shut during meditation.After 7 seconds they just tend to pop open,i close them again and lose my voncentration.Any idea why that may be happening?Also richard,is there any way that meditating may ever harm one?

I'm glad to hear you are getting started with meditation. I can't say why your eyes open soon after beginning, but I wouldn't worry about it. Instead, I would work with that.

There are many forms of meditation in which the eyes are purposely left open. What you might do is pick a point in front of you, and as you meditate on your chosen object, let your eyes rest on that point. Or possibly, pick a visual object on which to concentrate. The object can be anything, a point on the wall, a flower, a candle. Just look at it. Don't talk in your mind about it. Just look. Let your eyes blink naturally, but otherwise just look. In this way, you'll be working with your natural tendencies instead of fighting against them.

As far as meditating ever harming anyone, I haven't heard of that for normal methods of concentrating such as I've talked about on this site or about which you would read, except if you approach some techniques of yoga without a teacher. There have been reports of people experiencing increased levels of anxiety, as I've detailed in Be Still and Know..., but these are unusual and, as I state there, most likely signify progress in the psychological changes that meditation engenders that can be worked through, either alone, or with the aid of a sympathetic therapist.

Hi I read in one of the previous comments about a falling sensation. I am new to meditation and I find that when meditating i experience something similar to when falling asleep (head/body jerking)head dropping just for a second. It is a little startling, what do you think it is? Does it sound like falling asleep? I feel deeply relaxed but wasnt expecting that. I have never been able to fall asleep sitting up :PAny ideas on what to do or what it might be? Or just go with it....

I was so glad to read this list of sensations that can be experienced during meditation. I've felt the opening sensation, starting in the center of my chest. I had an experience once (during a Padmasambhava meditation) where I heated up and saw a huge Padmasambahava head and heard a deep, overwhelming droning sound, and felt a mixture of fear and excitement, and felt that something really important was going to happen next. Scared the living daylights out of me, because I was worried I wouldn't be coming back from whatever it was, so I stopped the meditation.

I hope you have continued your practice. Try to let the fear pass through you, or you through it, though I know it can be hard. That mixture of fear, excitement, and anticipation of something momentous is one thing that should have been in this list. They don't tell you it may happen, but I have felt the same thing.

Have you ever experienced a popping sound followed by a rhythmic whirring,after which you begin to experience an intense tingling throughout the body from the feet up then feel like your being is separating from the body. This scared the heck out of me!

The last experience about almost getting shocked really hits hard. I've never tried meditation but at times when I'm almost asleep and very relaxed this will happen. I've been thinking about trying meditation it seems like it can have a real positive effect on my life

I believe it frightened you. It did me too, the first time I experienced the vibrations. I think I've experienced something similar to the popping you describe, but I only experienced it when I was actively trying to get out of my body and thought of it as a rubber band popping in my brain. If it makes you feel any better, I've never noted any harm to come of it.

Thank you for stopping in. You may be interested in the out of body articles I noted in my reply to DW. The only time I've experienced whole body vibrations is in similar circumstances to those you describe, and they can lead to being able to get out of your body.

I stronly encourage you to practice meditation. Be Still and Know... details many of the positive effects of regular meditation, physically, psychologically, and spiritually. It is well worth the practice.

I might have had an OOBE during a lucid dream. It was different than the dream. Suddenly I was looking at my body top down. I could perceive the world differently. I looked at myself then I turned myself over and woke up. I was on my stomach when the OOBE started and had turned myself into the position I woke up. Are we supposed to be able to be able to exert a force while in an OOBE? I have never heard a reference about it, maybe I was somehow in control of both bodies at once? I had already read about astral projection at that time and was trying to induce lucid dreams. I guess I just have to put in more practice :)

A trite answer would be that you are in control of both bodies when you are OOB, especially at close range. A truthful answer is I don't know. In my experience, when one is OOB one experiences an admixture of what would could be called physical reality, and what could be called dream reality. Differentiating the two only happens after we are awake and fully in our normal ego consciousness, and then the differentiation is based on what we 'know' is possible in physical reality. When we are OOB we don't have our normal ego consciousness, though our state of consciousness is closer to normal than a dream, or even a lucid dream.

While that may sound vague, it is one of the reasons I don't know that there is any real difference between an OOBE and a lucid dream, and I only differentiate the two based on whether one attains a degree of normal ego awareness from a dream state, or whether one never loses it in the process of leaving the body.

In other respects, my experience and what I've read says we can't normally exert a force on the physical world when we are OOB.

Keep practicing, and have fun. But remember, one experience is all you need to know you are not just your body.

I have the following experience, and I am scared of it. I get a lot of light, color, and images in my meditative state. I have no problem focusing and I love playing with these energy bubbles and waves. Today, I began my session and quickly was overtaken by an amazing sense of ecstasy and blissfulness. My body also twitched a few time with a strong feelings.

The scary part is that the blissfulness has been lasting continuously all day. I am so calm, however. When I walk, I can quickly visualize myself watching from a distance, and I like this because then I don't have to think about many other day-to-day thoughts. What's going on with me?

Last night, I sensed that I could mentally let the body sway and/or shake. I read somewhere that we should not shake, and so stopped that experiment. I would appreciate if you could shed some light on it.

I have been in meditiation for few weeks. When I do breath in and breath out excercise I get tingling feeling in my body. I am confused. Please let me know if I should be scared and stop this meditation or enjoy the feeling and continue meditation.

You shouldn't be scared. At the worst, you're hyperventilating, in which case either slow down your breathing or don't breathe so deeply.

At best, it is an effect of the meditation, in which case note the tingling, then return to your focus on your breathing. It is a signpost of progress, but a distraction from your concentration if you focus on it.

Would you please clear my confusion if this tingling feeling should be considerded good and progress in my meditation which is only for the initial period as my trainer says or do I need to be more cautious and stop when I get this feeling. As you say if I am hyperventilating, will this be problematic to me.

These days I am taking this tingling feeling as some sort of energy coming to me and I have started observing it. I am doing the correct process.

I don't know that it represents anything in particular. It often happens to me as my concentration improves, and is frequently is accompanied by a sense that the internal field of vision has taken on the appearance of a three dimensional field, as when looking out into the world, rather than the flat field that appears when one just closes one's eyes.

When doing breath in from one nose and out from the other I find that my mouth is twisted towards left a little bit. I notice this and it takes time to be normal when I don't have any complain but others say that my mouth was twisted. Why does this happen and how to get rid of it.

I am not a therapist, so I can't recommend a specific technique. I do know that panic attacks are related to anxiety, something that meditation in general is known to decrease. Pick a meditation and practice it regularly. It can be a simple as counting your breaths or observing your breathing.

Hi Richard, I just started meditating a week ago, about 15 min in I felt a bussing in my ears and I was "seeing"(my eyes were closed" different colors swirl around" like this link at 4:28 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmUSvlM5BCg?thanks Richard!~Naj Somtaaw

This is very interesting site with lot of informations. I can't stop myself from asking you my concern about meditation. I want to know if I start meditation, do it for some time and then stop due to any reason. Will there be any adverse side effects. If so what kind of side effects I may get.

Meditation and hypnotism may be related. Some western theorists see meditation as a form of self-hypnosis. Meditation, though, won't give you hypnotism power. There won't be any adverse side effects from starting, then stopping the practice of meditation.

It isn't an unusual experience. You may also find your body shifting at some points, usually to a classic hatha yoga position. In either case, the phase will eventually pass. As with most experiences during meditation, acknowledge it, then got back to your focus.

While sitting cross legged for sometime for meditation with my eyes closed. I feel like I am going to fall and to control that I have to slightly open my eyes and bring my focus to my sittings which is disturbing my concentration. Why is this happening and what can I do to keep focus in my meditation.

If you're not using the lotus, I would recommend sitting in a half-lotus or, if your knees are up to it, the full lotus. These postures are designed to lock the body into one position, eliminating the sense of falling over you mention.

If you are using the lotus, consider using vajrasana, which some people call the thunderbolt and some people call the diamond pose. The thunderbolt, when done properly, is extremely steady.

They aren't necessarily. There are few cultures that haven't developed some form of meditation. As far as yoga goes, though, meditation is a centerpoint. In popular culture in the West yoga is identified with the physical postures as a form of exercise. In India yoga is a network of techniques to allow one to become more adept at dissolving the walls that separate the various levels of consciousness through the process of meditation. If you're interested, read some commentary on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, one of which you can get here in the form of Swami Vivekananda's commentary. You may also find Mircea Eliade's book,

I am doing meditation since 5 months and have experienced many of the above mentioned things during meditation. Last week after meditation i felt sleepy and just closed my eyes and lied down on bed (i was fully awake)i saw a glimpse of Lord Vishnu and immediately after that a puspak viman. Today while doing meditation i saw myself dead and soul was like a white light ball and my son is who was crying was able to see me in light form and was trying to hug me (I dont fear death, i am ready when the time comes for me. I love my family very much at the same time i am also detached from this world) Can you please help me understand this.

If you have a teacher, I would recommend you talk to him. I'm not familiar enough with Hindu scripture or you to know what the symbology is saying to you.

Without benefit of a teacher, there are a couple of tacts you could take.

First, note the visions, but do not become attached to them. While they have meaning, focusing on them means you are not focusing on your object of meditation.

Second, there is a meditation in which you focus on a specific bit of imagery. As you concentrate on the image, let a thought about it rise in your mind. Acknowledge the thought, then return to the image again, letting another thought rise in your mind. After several periods of meditation with the same image, you will have enough data to be able to get some idea of what it means to you.

I love meditating. I also have a bad habbit, I wake up late. Generally I do warm up & simple excercise for about 20 mins and after getting tired I sit for meditation for another 20 mins. I want to know after waking up and getting fresh can I directly sit for meditation ? If yes, I think my state of mind will still have the sleeping mood. So in that state is it possible to meditate ?

Among the experiences you've mentioned I have a feeling that my skin feels silky smooth and sensitive. Any touch to it is pleasurable.

I have heard that during meditation we get certain energy (Cosmic) which plays great role in our lifes. After meditation I get feeling of some energy is being received in my body with little tinglings. If the theory of comsic energy exists and it enters our body during meditation can you let me know how to preserve that energy for long time and how to utilize it.

I have been doing meditation since more than 5 months, Among the the experiences you've mentioned I also have a silky touch feeling in my body.

When doing meditation I get a tingling feeling. This is as if I am getting some sort of energy (Cosmic). Can you tell me how to preserve the energy I get and how to utilize them. I may sound silly but these are my concern which I think you will reply.

I don't know if the silky feeling is a result of energy channels opening up and being cleansed, or changes in brain biochemistry. I've always just noted it as a possible experience resulting from meditation and let it go at that, since i have no way to answer the question to my satisfaction. Either way, I've seen it as a sign of progress.

As you're asking about this on the internet, I assume you don't have a teacher. Also assuming the sensation is the result of the nadis being opened and cleansed, I would just continue meditating as you have been, with the possible addition of alternate nostril breathing, a breathing exercise designed explicitly for cleansing the energy channels. I've discussed this in Meditation Breathing Exercises.

My younger brother and his friends who are with meditation for several years. People also call them Englightened persons. I find them strange. I mean to say they I find them more self-centered. More interested in his / her self rather than outside world. More reserved and soft spoken and are not borther with general knowledge topics which normal people learn or talk about. Why is this. Can you also let me know if such people posses the capablility to effect orthers life positive / negative. Please explain.

I was looking up vibration during meditation and found this page. I have had this happen several times when laying in bed and trying to sleep. I feel a vibration so strong that my eyesight is blurred and I can not move. As it begins I do feel the falling back. Several times I have fought with myself over if I was asleep and it was a dream. I can't speak when it happens and I usually tend to panic and try to bring myself out of it. Last night I believe I had it happen as I was waking up and my dream was intertwined with the experience. It was a very odd feeling. But I know it was partially a dream. I feel so disconnected from my body other than the vibration effecting my vision. I don't really know if I should fight it or let it go on. I tend to fight it as hard as I can because I feel I have no control. Any suggestions?

Hello and thank you kindly for making this dialogue possible. A couple years ago I realized that my body would sway during meditation. By swaying I mean the upper part of my body would move from side to side and sometimes it would move in a circular motion. Slowly at first then it started moving faster and faster. Since then I have not been meditating as frequently due to reasons unrelated to the swaying. Anyways, reciently I've noticed that when I am sitting on my bed I would start swaying or maybe it is vibrating, very quickly for a moment, until I consciously move my body. I have not been meditating steadily but I am able to drop into Alpha at a moment's notice while still being conscious of what is happening. I just wanted to know what the swaying means. Also, my tongue would start moving up and down, to the point where it is visable under my chin area...I am not afraid of these feelings I'm just curious to know if they have a specific meaning. I've only mentioned it to a couple people but they did not have an answer. I believe I know what it is but I don't want to speculate you know?? Thank you for reading...Venus

There is little literature present on spontaneous body movements such as you describe in Western writing, that I know of. However, in books (forgive me, for I can't recall the titles at the moment) on meditation on yoga written by Hindus and published in English, I've seen mention of spontaneous body movement. In those books the movements have been related to kundalini and prana, with the movements being essentially the natural assumption of hatha yoga asanas, or postures.

In the West we tend to think of hatha yoga as a way to preserve bodily health. This is not its intended purpose, though. The original intent of hatha yoga is to prepare the physical body and energy body for the awakening of kundalini, and later to actually awaken it. Kundalini is the fire that is said to lie sleeping at the base of the spine. The postures of hatha yoga are said to have been developed from postures spontaneously assumed during meditation, such as have experienced.

Thanks, Venus, for bringing this up. I, too, experience spontaneous body movements. I have been meditating for a few months, now, and it has happened pretty much every time. It can start with swaying and circular motion, but usually goes much further, with flowing hands and arms. The movements are very graceful and beautiful (I think-- there is no one around to see them), and I think some of the hand gestures are mudras. I have come to think that some of the movements have to do with energy flow and particular chakras, depending on where the hands may be placed. I try not to focus too much on these movements, however, so as not to involve my mind/ego in the process and interrupt my progress.Similarly, with no consciousness of having heard anything beforehand, I will many times spontaneously sing or hum a tune I've never heard before. This will usually happen near the end of a meditation and will close the session, though now and then there might be a few notes briefly uttered in the middle of the meditation. I love music, but have previously had no ability to write melodies, so this is completely new for me. Have you heard of this?You might be right about a Kundalini connection, Richard. I had a spontaneous, involuntary Kundalini rising experience about 7 years ago that kind of disturbed me, having no idea, at the time, what was going on. Any recommendations of books that deal with these phenomena would be most welcome! I have a guru watching over me, so I know I'm okay, ultimately.

Regarding the spontaneous humming or singing, I've not experienced it, nor read about it. You do the right thing in acknowledging the presence of these and the movements, then returning to the important thing, your meditation. At best, they are productive sign posts that are not meant to be focused on.

I haven't read any modern literature on the awakening of kundalini. To be honest, I'm not sure I would trust it. 'Kundalini Yoga' has become something of a fashion in the past 10 or 15 years. I have read The Awakening of Kundalini by Gopi Krishna, first published in the mid-1970s, which seemed authentic. His experiences began in the 1930s. You may also find something in the works about Ramakrishna. The works of Vivekananda (one of the pioneers of Vedanta in the West) and Swami Rama (who first appeared in the US in the 1960s) are useful.

Richard and Jennifer, thank you so very much for your words. They really helped! and thank you for stating the importance of acknowledging the signposts but not focusing on them but rather getting back to practice. I am a bit familiar with the Kundalini chakra - I believe it is said that this chakra actually feeds the other chakras and once it is opened it is the equivalent to Mastery. Jennifer, I haven't experienced anything like the flowing hands and arms but if I do, most likely I'll smile and silently thank you for preparing me, then of course, get back to practice :) There is something else that I would like to ask. Have you heard anything stating that when we arrived on this level collectively, our chakras were turned inside out which leads us to seek the God force outside of ourselves rather than within?? Currently I believe that we are connected to the God force surrounding us through the God force within us - our Soul/Spirit. It's like God is a Great big, beautiful, intelligent, loving, all knowing, infinite energy mass and we are a part of that mass. The only difference is we need our bodies to experience this level. More like a learning experience and as far as I know there are many different levels to this Universe so this is just one of the "school rooms" that we pass through in our quest for learning and experience. Life is literally what we make it and the Great Masters of the past and also the current ones came to show the masses the most logical way to get though this level. Anyways, the question about our chakras being turned inside out, I'm wondering if this is more of a metaphor or if it is literal? and if it is true that would mean a great injustice has be done to the human race. It would explain why going to church/temple fills a need for alot of people. I also used to go to church all the time but for me it was more the feeling - at the time I did not know it but the feeling I am speaking of is love. All these people, including me, transmitting loving energy, whether it is through their singing, their fervent prayers, their smiles...it just felt good. If the whim hits me I would go just to be in that concentrated feeling of love. Though I understand the necessity for religion I do not actively go to church. I've always had questions but religion never really fully answered them for me. But if it weren’t for religion I would not have grown into the person I am today so I view religion as a stepping stone to the truth. Eventually I started seeking answers outside religious circles and whenever I focused my thoughts on something the answer usually comes sometimes the answer is obvious sometimes not, but when the answer comes or when the lesson is learned it always feels like an awesome experience - it never gets old! It seems as if I’m always learning/remembering, and my thirst for knowledge is unquenchable. There are just so many angles to learning – so fascinating the different ways to see and apply knowledge. Even with its ups and downs, this life, this existence is truly unparalleled...What are your thoughts on God?? I’m interested to know…

Hi there,Fascinating thread! Ive just 'awoke' from some really amazing sensations felt during meditation. I have had it happen a couple of times previously too. I find that if I meditate for around 45 mins solid I seem to 'breakthrough' and enter a euphoric state where waves of bliss flow through me, my field of vision (closed eyes) goes extremely erratic (it seemed to shatter into shards glass on this occasion) and my heartrate increases dramatically. It all gets a bit overwhelming as the euphoria increases until I open my eyes. I find these experiences fascinating and pleasurable but ultimately I guess they are blocking the continuation of my meditation. I'd be grateful of any tips on how to overcome/withstand this strange event in order to prolong my meditation??

Hello?? I'm figuring you must be on vacation or maybe away on business...either way if it's a vacation hope you're having lots of fun and if it's business hope it's profitable for you - take care - Venus

I have to post what i just experienced and what has made me stumble across this site. I just experienced exactly what Rich from Sept 7 posted. A few months ago I was feeling very happy and comfortable. i decided to just lay on my couch and look out my window..i was feeling happy. I remember saying to myself 'i know my eyes are shut but how is it possible that i can see?'. i realize now that this was a sort of awakening? Seeing clearly with my eyes shut? anyways, today i wanted to experience the same thing...so i layed back down on my couch and began to breath in and out deeply. I tried very hard to keep all thoughts out of my head.I started to look into the middle of my eyes.I heard my breathing.I felt like I was breathing in and out really deeply now. Almost like if I had to remind myself to breath in and out or else i would stop breathing. I could feel my “sight” moving and flashing violently. White and lines and dots all moving wildly. I kept telling myself not to open my eyes that I had to just keep breathing and just be with the movements and flashes. My stomach felt like it was on a rollercoaster that gave me butterflies. There were no thoughts in my mind.It would come and go. I had to keep telling myself to breath and listen on the breathing. I became aware that there was sounds in the distance. They made the colors and twitsts and turns seem like they were moving to a beat. My breathing was in the background. I felt my heart pumping so I forced myself to open my eyes.My heart was pumping really fast. Like I had just run at all my might. I began to cry and feel my hands tremble.

what is this that just happend? Meditation?I am scared to keep practicing these things without someone that knows whats happening

hello i dont have any teacher but i have been practicing meditation for few years .when i meditate on muladahara chakra i fell vibration like electricity all over body now i have this feeling all the time.after meditation i feel intense heat in my muladhara chakra.but i do not know how to take that energy to next swadhisthan chakra.i always hear a sound like a sssssssssssssssssss .and more thing after one hour of meditaion i have extreme difficulty in sitting in padmasan.how can i extend my posture in padmasan???

when i do meditation , i try concentrating on middle of eye as well as on my breath.after some time my eyes get fixed and i feel that i don't have control over my eyes , and i also feel that then chanting of ooommmmmmmmmmm is coming somewhere from my inside , My back becomes straight without support as i cn't sit without support normally.I feel that a flower has blooming I even feel that once i am changing into Lord Krishna and blessing myself and once i feel i am myself and showering flowers on "GOD" , once i feel i am touching HIS feet.And during this i complete lose control over me but i remain conscious , i cant open eyes ........ after some time automatically i get control over my body my eyes get open .......After that i feel that i am very fresh and some times i feel sleepy ..Are these experiences normal ? Am i on right track ......

shanu, Yes, these experiences are normal. The religious aspects are rooted in your own religion, and positive symbolic references. The physical experiences I generally relate to the opening of the energy channels in the body, with an accompanying increase in the flow of prana. In essence, it is signifies a cleansing of the energy body.

I've heard it said that yoga postures are not so much inventions of the yogis of the past, but re-creations of the postures they experience during heightened states of meditation. From my own experiences, I'd agree with that assessment.

Related things I've experienced along those lines include my spine straightening, half-twists to the left and right, various stretches and twistings of my neck, varying breathing rates, including ceasing to breathe for a period of time without any discomfort of sense of not having enough air.

So yes, you are on the right track. Just don't become attached to the experiences. They are signposts, not things to be sought. As you progress in your meditation, and focusing on ajna as you do is a very good point of meditation, you may experience more of these, but eventually the physical experiences will cease as their job is completed.